Pro-Palestinian demonstrators carried out actions on the finish line of the 11th stage in Bilbao on Wednesday, after having already disturbed the fictitious departure and the race.
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Already disrupted from the fictitious departure by pro-Palestinian demonstrators, the eleventh stage of the Vuelta could not come to an end to Bilbao, Wednesday September 3. “Following incidents on the finish line, we decided to take the time three kilometers from the line. There will be no stage winner. We will assign the points for the mounting classification and the intermediate sprint, but not on the finish line”communicated the race management on Radio Vuelta. There is also no protocol ceremony, while demonstrators tried to open the barriers, before the police are established to secure the finish line.
Earlier in the stage, 27 kilometers from the finish, pro-Palestinian demonstrators had again disturbed the race by deploying a banner hostile to Israel and the Israel-Prime Tech team, in the middle of the runners, when one of them had dropped the day before during a similar militant action. Representatives of each team of the peloton gathered on Wednesday morning to express their feeling of danger to the organization.
Even without winner, the runners still explained themselves in the last pass, the Pike viola. The British Tom Pidcock (Q36.5) spent his summit in the lead after an attack followed by Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease A Bike), but not Joao Almeida (Uae Team Emirates-XRG). It was the Danish, a red jersey, who first passed the fictitious finish line, three kilometers from the planned line, in the company of the British, but without being able to really rise. “I wanted to win today, for my son who is celebrating his first birthday. We worked all day for that, and not having the chance to cross the finish line first, it's sad, it was me to heart”he reacted on Eurosport. The 12th stage, Thursday, will be held between Laredo and Los Corrales de Buelna.
